Monday, June 01, 2009

Ruts and How to Avoid Them

I don't know about you, but I can't knit all the time. Not that the idea isn't attractive in theory, but in practice it doesn't work. Sore fingers, carpal tunnel, waking up with a merino hangover in a cold pool of your own worsted. Not pretty.

You know how farmers rotate crops to keep the soil fertile? I have to do that occasionally with my creative focus to keep my brain from turning into a dustbowl. Put down the needles, pick up the camera. Put down the camera, pick up the pencil. Put down the pencil, pick up tomatoes.*

The strangest thing is that all this stuff cross-pollinates, even when it seems impossible that it should. I was doing squats at the gym this morning and got an idea for a sweater. Had to run back to the locker room to make notes.

Lately I've been pulling out my toy cameras again. They're Holgas–cheap, all-plastic babies from China that shoot weird, dreamy pictures on medium format film. When I first bought mine, you could pick them up for ten bucks at a good camera store. Since then, they've become a vogue among prissy art students and will set you back fifty, but I still enjoy using mine.

Holgas are, to use a polite word, quirky. The limited focus mechanism has a mind of its own, and occasionally will decline to operate. The body leaks light. The back will fall off unless you tape the camera together. The film doesn't advance properly until you jam a piece of cardboard under the spool. The shutter doesn't click, it just emits a half-hearted "sproing."

Using a Holga forces you to relinquish just about all your control as photographer. You choose what to point the thing at, but that's about it. You go out, you shoot a roll, you send your film to the lab and wait to see what happened. Sometimes nothing, sometimes fun stuff.

These pictures of the BP Bridge in Millenium Park–a stainless steel Frank Gehry production with a superabundance of curves–came back from processing not long ago.

I've taken quite a few shots of the bridge with my Canon, which has multi-point focus, a pro-quality lens, automatic everything with manual overrides–and yet these are the stronger images.

I was looking at them and it occurred to me that I need to do the same thing with one of my current knitting projects. It began with great excitement, then hit a wall as I confronted a million design questions at once. Should I zig? Zag? Both? Neither? I've decided to let go, the way I do with my Holga, and this morning I've finally finished the 4" x 4" swatch.

Only took me two months.

Back to Texas

Dolores, Harry and I are heading south for World Wide Knit in Public Day. The Knitting Nest in Austin, Texas has invited us to come down for the festivities, which at The Knitting Nest are always extremely festive, indeed. Last time I was there, they let me draw all over the wall!

(If you like it, it's available on shirts, bags and kiddie clothes here.)

From 11 am–2 pm I'll be teaching "Introduction to the History, Methods, and Styles of Lace Knitting" (visit the Web site for details) and for the rest of the day I'll be hanging around knitting in air-conditioned comfort. Stop by, won't you, and say hello to the visiting Yankees?

Double Dipping

The eye-popping Summer issue of Twist Collective is up, and I'm in it. Twice, actually. There's my usual illustration for Ann's and Kay's advice column, plus this. I love the Twist folks with all my heart. They said, "Do something. Whatever you want." So I did, and when they saw it they didn't send it back with a note reading, "Too weird. Try again." And what I did is pretty weird.

Well if it comes to that I have had a lot of fun with a case of over ripe tomatoes and a chain link fence. It takes a surprising amount of force to hurl a tomato through a chain link fence. The dog on the other side was less than thrilled with my choice of afternoon activities. However it had been a long and very wierd night at the battered women's shelter and I found the splat to be soothing.

While I admire people with knitting blogs with knitting content in frequent posts, it's not my style. I have lots of "pastimes" that I like to do and I think that switching streams is just fine.

I love those photos with the Holga, very nice! I know nothing about those nifty old cameras. Have you ever checked out Jill Danyelle? (danyelle.org) I find her photos very inspiring - even with digital she is able to achieve a surreal dreamy quality.Happy "crafting", F!

GORGEOUS shots with the Holga! They somehow have more chew to them than digital shots, if that's not too odd a metaphor. (And thank you for reminding me that I have an old Holga gathering dust in my closet...!)

Loved your art in Twist -- so quaint. so literary.Also, I brought a couple of my (male) non-knitting friends into my LYS yesterday and they were mesmerized by your book. I had to explain what some of the jokes were, but they still loved it!

I love the Twist article. Too-many years ago I went through a stage of drawing pictures in one line, but in a fit of mad cleaning I discarded them. Sigh. I had a few good ones among them, though nothing like yours; I mainly drew faces.Wish I could get to Austin without flying.My verification word is "rensuc" - I shudder to think what it might mean.

Oh, man! I was considering accompanying my SO on a trip to Austin that weekend, but decided not to. If I'd only known, I'd have totally been there! (Although it's possible that my toddler companion might not have attended your presentation with as rapt attention as I would....)

I'm definatel becoming a "fangirl", as Rooie says, and I'm also over 50!! Discovered Franklin completely by accident when I wanted to knit the Nightcap from Knitty and had a problem with the pattern, he graciously answered my query in no time at all. So I started to read the blog, then bought the book (LOL, best book I've read in AGES and I read a lot), in the the last couple of days also discovered the Twist site with the brilliant piece...and the beat goes on!!!

Love those shots of the bridge- as soon as I saw them I thought Holga! I am so so pleased that mine has finally come home to mama after a 3 year absence. My Lubitel is here again too (russian number. Also considered a "toy" camera, though twin lens reflex with ground glass sighting. Cool too, but not quite so ghostly in image quality). I'm planning on setting up a mini darkroom in my basement so that I don't have to rely on labs!

I love my holga! i was one of those prissy art students, unfortunately but my teachers gave me crap for it all the time. Then I loaned it to a friend and have yet to see it since. i have my eye on a Diana now. I am sort of new to reading your blog I know your cartoons and the book but I didn't put it all together until listening to a back episode of Sticks and String when I found out that you are from Chicago and live with a Sheep. Which is Awesome!!! I would love to live with a sheep but i don't think my boyfriend would let me :(

I've always wanted one of those cameras. I may just go out and treat myself to one. I go through phases where I put my knitting down too. It usually doesn't last long though, but I try to take reading breaks and I'm always taking pictures so it helps.

i must say, i was wondering "what cat?!" and what was everyone else seeing and upon returning to Twist I discovered using the side triangle arrows. der. i need more coffee. I, too, love the cat and the style and the poetry.

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